Niki Maragou

The poet, prose writer, and painter Niki Marangou (1948-2013) was born in Limassol. She studied sociology in Berlin. Upon returning to Cyprus, she collaborated with the Cyprus Theatre Organization, the newspaper "O Phileleftheros," and engaged in editorial work. In 1980, she founded the bookstore "Kochlias" in Nicosia, which became a reference point for writers and intellectuals in Cyprus, managing it until 2007, alongside her other activities as a painter, engraver, and ceramicist. She published poetry books, prose, and children's books: the poetry collections "Ta apo kipon" (Agra, 1980), State Poetry Commendation in Cyprus, 1981, "Archi Indiktou" (private edition, Nicosia, 1987), State Poetry Award in Cyprus, 1988, and the collected edition "Divan 1967-2000" (2005), which was awarded by the Academy of Athens; the short story collections "A Layer of Sand" (Kastaniotis, 1990), State Prose Award in Cyprus, 1991, "The Demon of Prostitution" (Melani, 2007); the novels "Is the Panther Alive?" (Kastaniotis, 1998, featuring Evangelos Louizos, host of G. Seferis in Cyprus when he served as ambassador in Beirut), "Doctor from Vienna" (To Rodakio, 2003), "Gezoul" (Estia, 2010); her memoirs of living with Alexis Akrithakis in Berlin, "A Night with Alexis" (To Rodakio, 2007). She collected and translated into common Greek "Fairy Tales of Cyprus" (Armos, 1994) and adapted the Cypriot folk tales "The Cobbler and the King" (Taxideftis, 2005) and "The Young Man with the Bowl" (Taxideftis, 2005). She also published the cookbook "Recipes for Katerina" (Ermis, 2001). Her last book was "Eighteen Narratives" (To Rodakio, 2012), a collection of stories from Cypriot women that she recorded over many years, which, according to her, contained the history of Cyprus, preserved folk narratives, and captured a vibrant oral language that is gradually disappearing. She translated poetry by Joachim Sartorius from German. Her translated works into German have been included in the international poetry anthology "Nachrichten von der Poesie" by Joachim Sartorius, accompanied by a CD with recitations by well-known German actors. As a painter, she held seven solo exhibitions and participated with her works in the Ljubljana Biennial of Graphic Arts in 1993 and the Cairo Biennial in 1996. She had one daughter, Katerina, who is also a painter. She passed away on Thursday, February 7, 2013, in a car accident near the city of Fayoum, Egypt, 100 kilometers south of Cairo, at the age of 65.